Employers’ use of non-compete agreements have been subject to increasing scrutiny from federal agencies in the past year or so. More recently, the balance of discussion surrounding regulatory efforts to curtail the use of non-compete agreements has been focused on the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule banning non-compete agreements. At the same time, the National Labor Relations Board has quietly continued to challenge employee non-compete agreements through enforcement See more +

Employers’ use of non-compete agreements have been subject to increasing scrutiny from federal agencies in the past year or so. More recently, the balance of discussion surrounding regulatory efforts to curtail the use of non-compete agreements has been focused on the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule banning non-compete agreements. At the same time, the National Labor Relations Board has quietly continued to challenge employee non-compete agreements through enforcement actions.

In June, an NLRB administrative law judge (“ALJ”) sided with the Board, ruling that “ridiculously broad” non-solicit and non-compete provisions in an employment agreement were unlawful under federal labor law. The ruling is yet another reminder of the Board’s increased scrutiny of employee restrictive covenants.

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